Evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire, Canada, and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbor of Dunkirk, France, between May 26- June 04, 1940, during Battle of France in World War II.

Trivia

By the tradition, Christopher Nolan decided to use the real naval destroyers instead of CGI for sea battle sequences in this film.

Christopher Nolan received a $20 million salary against 20% of the box office gross, the biggest deal for any director since Peter Jackson received the same amount with King Kong (2005).

Continuing his advocacy for film over digital formats, Christopher Nolan chose to shoot the movie in a combination of 15/70mm IMAX film and Super Panavision 65mm film in order to achieve the maximum possible image quality. Following The Master (2012) and The Hateful Eight (2015), Dunkerque (2017) will be the third major motion picture of the current decade to be primarily shot and shown theatrically in 70mm.

In order to avoid the use of computer generated imagery the production had cardboard cut-out props of soldiers and military vehicles placed in the far background of shots to create the illusion of a large army.

1,500 extras, a crane and a spitfire were used to recreate the miraculous evacuation of 333,000 allied troops.

This is director Christopher Nolan's first movie since Insomnia (2002) not to feature Michael Caine.

First Christopher Nolan movie to be based on historical events. All of his other movies have either been original scripts, remakes, novel/short story adaptations, or comic book adaptations.

This is the 3rd Christopher Nolan film to be written entirely by Chris himself, the others being Following (1998) and Inception (2010). Memento (2000) was a story based from his brother, Jonathan Nolan. The Dark Knight (2008), The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and Interstellar (2014) were all co-written by Jonathan. Batman Begins (2005) was co-written by David S. Goyer. Christopher's only uncredited written film is Insomnia (2002).

Urk, a small fishing town in Flevoland, The Netherlands, was used as a base of operation for filming on the IJsselmeer.

The film is told from three points of view: on the beach with the infantry (including Fionn Whitehead and Harry Styles), the evacuation by the navy (featuring Cillian Murphy and Mark Rylance, showing how civilians came to the rescue) and then in the air (with Tom Hardy engaging in plane combat). Speaking about the narrative structure in Premiere magazine, Christopher Nolan stated: "For the soldiers who embarked in the conflict, the events took place on different temporalities. On land, some stayed one week stuck on the beach. On the water, the events lasted a maximum day; and if you were flying to Dunkirk, the British spitfires would carry an hour of fuel. To mingle these different versions of history, one had to mix the temporal strata. Hence the complicated structure; even if the story is very simple. Do not repeat it to the studio: it will be my most experimental film."

This will be cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema's second film for Christopher Nolan. The previous movie was Interstellar (2014).

Christopher Nolan's sixth collaboration with composer Hans Zimmer. They previously worked together on The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception (2010), and Interstellar (2014). Zimmer received an Oscar Nomination for both Inception and Interstellar.

This will be Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy's fourth collaboration, after Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and Peaky Blinders (2013).

The screenplay was 112 pages long.

Part of the movie was filmed on the IJsselmeer in the Netherlands.

Christopher Nolan investigated silent films to influence crowd scenes with suspense using details only, because of the minuscule presence of dialogue in the film.

Tom Hardy and Mark Rylance were both nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 2016 Academy Awards for The Revenant (2015) and Bridge of Spies (2015), respectively. Rylance won the award.

The film cast includes one Oscar winner: Mark Rylance and two Oscar nominees: Tom Hardy and Kenneth Branagh.

Is the fifth collaboration between Cillian Murphy and Christopher Nolan.

Christopher Nolan's first war movie.

In regards to the Battle of Dunkirk's importance, Christopher Nolan stated:"This is an essential moment in the history of the Second World War. If this evacuation had not been a success, Great Britain would have been obliged to capitulate. And the whole world would have been lost, or would have known a different fate: the Germans would undoubtedly have conquered Europe, the US would not have returned to war. It is a true point of rupture in war and in history of the world. A decisive moment. And the success of the evacuation allowed Churchill to impose the idea of a moral victory, which allowed him to galvanize his troops like civilians and to impose a spirit of resistance while the logic of this sequence should have been that of surrender. Militarily it is a defeat; on the human plane it is a colossal victory."

Film debut of Harry Styles.

The 10th feature length film directed by Christopher Nolan. If his short film Doodlebug (1997) and documentary short Quay (2015) are included, his 12th film overall.

This is the seventh Christopher Nolan film to be distributed by Warner Bros.

The first Christopher Nolan film since The Prestige (2006) to not receive funding from Legendary Pictures.

This is the third collaboration between Tom Hardy and Christopher Nolan after Inception (2010) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

Filmed in France under the name, 'Bodega Bay'

The film had a seven minute IMAX prologue that played in front of Rogue One (2016). This is the third time a Christopher Nolan film has had prologue released six months before the release of the film. The other two were The Dark Knight (2008) IMAX prologue played in front of I Am Legend (2007) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012) IMAX prologue played in front of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011).

Two historic fishing boats were used as a background decor. The UK 12 and the UK 114. However, UK does not stand for United Kingdom. It is a Dutch harbor-code for Urk, where much of the filming was done.

Contrary to popular belief, Adolf Hitler never issued a halt order prior to the evacuation from Dunkirk. The order was actually issued by Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, commander of Army Group A, and General Günther von Kluge, commander of the Fourth Army, at the request of the tank unit commander General Paul von Kleist, who had lost 50% of his armored forces and needed time to regroup. Hitler only sanctioned the order.

Harry Styles had a personal bodyguard on set, because of the female attention.

Christopher Nolan cited silent movies such as Greed (1924), Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916), and Sunrise (1927) as inspirations for 'Dunkirk's' crowd scenes: "I spent a lot of time reviewing the silent films for crowd scenes - the way extras move, evolve, how the space is staged and how the cameras capture it, the views used". Nolan also studied Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (1956), Pickpocket (1959), Saving Private Ryan (1998), and The Wages of Fear (1953) to dissect the process of creating suspense through details.

After first-hand accounts of the Dunkirk evacuation revealed to Christopher Nolan how young and inexperienced the soldiers were, he decided to cast young and unknown actors for the beach setting.

This is the first biographic movie directed by Christopher Nolan.

This will be Tom Hardy's third World War Two project since Colditz (2005).

This will be Kenneth Branagh's third World War II movie. He also appeared in Conspiracy (2001) and Valkyrie (2008). If counting Swing Kids (1993) whose story takes place a few years before the war, then it would mark as the fourth WWII film he starred in.

Christopher Nolan's first period film since The Prestige (2006), eleven years before this films release.

Reunites Christopher Nolan with Hans Zimmer (music), Lee Smith (editor), Hoyte Van Hoytema (photography), Nathan Crowley (production designer), John Papsidera (casting), Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy. Most of the crew have been working fo Nolan since The Dark Knight Trilogy except van Hoytema who has worked with him since Interstellar (2014).

Lots of filming was done in and around Urk, a small fishing town in Flevoland, the Netherlands. Urk is pronounced exactly the same as the second part of the movie name: dunkURK.

Of the 40,000 plus British soldiers captured, who fought the rear guard, 10,000 plus were Scottish. The only notable inclusion in this adaptation, of the 51st Highlanders, is an Englishman playing one of their number.

Andrew Simpson was reportedly in talks for one of the main characters.

The film could have been made earlier, as for idea of it was haunting Christopher Nolan's mind since his early student days, but he was too afraid his lack of experience in big-scale filmmaking is going to tamper his project of passion, so he delayed it until he trailed his skill with his previous large-scale blockbuster projects, including The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception (2010) and Interstellar (2014).

In creating of this film, director Christopher Nolan focused on the "real" of every aspect: putting an IMAX camera on the cockpit and wing of an actual Spitfire plane, floating cameramen around in the water with actors, and creating unpredictability and suspense for the audience.

The title "Dunkirk" is divided into three segmented colours, sky blue, dark blue and orange referring to the triptych plot of Air, Sea and Land.

This is the sixth Christopher Nolan's blockbuster made in PG-13 age rating.

The UK was only able to continue fighting after the Fall of France due to supplies of munitions from the United States. The Neutrality Patrol was heavily biased in favor of the Royal Navy over the Kriegsmarine. In September 1940 the US sold the UK fifty old warships in the Destroyers for Bases Agreement, and in March 1941 the US dropped any pretense of neutrality when Lend-Lease began.

When asked why he cast Harry Styles in the film, Christopher Nolan said "I auditioned literally thousands of young men with different combinations of young men. And he had it."